…This is unlikely to be the case, but here’s a thought: If I were, say, the United States government, and I anticipated military action in the mideast that might interrupt oil supplies, I wouldn’t want to stockpile directly because that would be a tipoff. But if I manipulated markets into running up stocks, I wouldn’t have to. . . . Nah. They’re not that smart.

(Interesting to me, at least, because a related interpretation has crossed my mind.)

We should be building nuclear plants, not burning food. We should be drilling for the oil we do have in Alaska and off the coast of Florida. We should be funding efforts to gasify coal - the Germans did it during WWII, it is possible.

The longer we do nothing, the worse it will be. This will end. The usual suspects in Congress will hold hearings instead of mirrors.

Meh. I view your posts as brainstorming (not as polemics or prognostication), and appreciate the thought and insight that go into them. In turn, I try to comment constructively (and hopefully to add value sometimes) whether I agree or disagree.